The novel Nakedness turned Zigmunds Skujiņš into a literary celebrity across the Soviet Union and “radically changed the Latvian prose scene,” according to Latvian literary critic Guntis Berelis. Since then, two popular films have been made based on the book, and it’s still the Skujiņš novel that most people first come into contact with. The novel’s protagonist, Aleksandrs Draiska, comes to a small textile factory town looking for a girl he’s been exchanging letters with. Finding somebody else at her address, he sets off on a search across the town, where he discovers that almost everyone is pretending to be somebody else. This mask-wearing becomes the cause of death for the girl Draiska has been looking for, driving him deeper into despair. The final twist is saved for last, however, when we discover that it was not Draiska, but his army friend who came to the factory town after falling in love with the girl from the letters, deciding to masquerade as his friend in order to find her.

Contacts: Jānis Oga, janis@apgadsmansards.lv 

The narrative of the novel Flesh-Coloured Dominos is split into two parallel stories. On the one hand we have a story of 18th-century Baltic German gentry, within the framework of Tsarist Russia: Baroness Waltraut von Bruegen, with the help of the famous Count Cagliostro, is searching for her husband who has disappeared during the Turkish wars. With great difficulty she learns that her husband was torn in two during a battle, and that his lower half was stitched onto the upper half of the local captain Ulste, a man of humble origins. After finding the lower half of her husband, she conceives a child with it and is in the lengthy process of contemplating who should be considered the father of her child when her husband returns – in one piece. On the other hand, we have the life story of the author himself, travelling through the turmoil of 20th-century Latvia. The story is a rich tapestry of detail, with nationalities intertwined in an inseparable mix
– Latvians, Germans, Jews, and Japanese, among many others. The connection between the two narratives gradually becomes clear: they click together through details mentioned as if in passing. The novel is also a moving story of the experience of one person’s life during turbulent times.

Contact: Jānis Oga, janis@apgadsmansards.lv